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Friday September 2, 2016Driving from the Bay Area to Mammoth Mountain

Saturday September 3, 2016Driving from Mammoth Mountain to Tuolumne Meadows, dropping off a car, and driving back

At about 3:40am I got up, got dressed, and drove to the
nearby Mammoth Mountain Visitor Center where the US Forest
Service issues permits. In the dark it took me a while to locate
the front door since it is really on the back of the building. I placed my folding chair at the head of the line
and went back to the Camry to wait for anyone else to show up to get in
line for a permit. Shortly before 5am a van drove in to the
parking lot, so I got out of the car and assumed my position at the
front of the line. The van held 6 twentysomethings from Southern
California who had driven up last night and then camped out in a field
for a few hours before coming here. A few of them set up their
sleeping bags in line in back of me - they're in the left foreground in
the picture below. They wanted to do the John Muir Trail / PTC -
Highline Trail loop in two days - one of them had to be back at work
Monday night, which I figured would be nearly impossible but I didn't
tell them. However since there were 6 of them and only 4
remaining permits for the JMT, they'd have to start on the Highline
trail. In theory these 6 were not in competition with me for the
4 JMT permits.
At 5:50am the next party arrived, and shortly after that the next party
after them. So it turns out that in theory I could have slept in
until 5:30am and still gotten the permit I wanted.

06:54
Line for backcountry permits to hike Sunday morning into Inyo National Forrest.

08:05

At 8am they hand out numbers so you can return at 11am to get your permit.
I of course got number 1, the prize for being the idiot who gets in line at 4am.

Jed and I returned to the Visitor Center shortly before 11am.
The easiest thing for the Forest Service to do was issue Jed his own
permit for the JMT, adding him to my existing permit would have
required the Rangers to make a phone call to somewhere...
We then drove to the Whoa Nelli Deli to wait for Kent.

12:49

Kent arrived and we had lunch at the best place to eat on the East Side...

13:06
Kent's pic

We all drove to Tuolumne Meadows, left my Camry at the trailhead, and
crowded into Kent's Porsche for the drive back to Mammoth Mountain.

16:34

17:28

We went to the Mammouth Mountain Brewing Company, makers of one of my favorite beers Epic IPA.
Epic is not available in the Bay Area, I always try to bring a case back from Yosemite.
I got a beer sampler.... Jed got two!

17:36

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Friday September 2, 2016Driving from the Bay Area to Mammoth Mountain

Saturday September 3, 2016Driving from Mammoth Mountain to Tuolumne Meadows and Back

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Sunday September 4, 2016 Backpacking Red's Meadow to the Minarets